American History I

Ms. Page
Manifest Destiny

John O’Sullivan, "The Great Nation of Futurity," 1839.

The American people having derived their origin from many other nations, and the Declaration of National
Independence being entirely based on the great principle of human equality, these facts demonstrate at once
our disconnected position as regards any other nation; that we have, in reality, but little connection with the
past history of any of them, and still less with all antiquity, its glories, or its crimes. On the contrary, our national
birth was the beginning of a new history, the formation and progress of an untried political system, which
separates us from the past and connects us with the future only; and so far as regards the entire development
of the natural rights of man, in moral, political, and national life, we may confidently assume that our country is
destined to be the great nation of futurity….

Yes, we are the nation of progress, of individual freedom, of universal enfranchisement. Equality of rights is the
cynosure (​object of admiration​) of our union of States, the grand exemplar of the correlative equality of
individuals; and while truth sheds its effulgence (​brightness)​ , we cannot retrograde (​move backward​), without
dissolving the one and subverting the other. We must onward to the fulfilment of our mission -- to the entire
development of the principle of our organization -- freedom of conscience, freedom of person, freedom of trade
and business pursuits, universality of freedom and equality. This is our high destiny, and in nature's eternal,
inevitable decree of cause and effect we must accomplish it. All this will be our future history, to establish on
earth the moral dignity and salvation of man -- the immutable truth and beneficence of God. For this blessed
mission to the nations of the world, which are shut out from the life-giving light of truth, has America been
chosen; and her high example shall smite unto death the tyranny of kings, hierarchs, and oligarchs, and carry
the glad tidings of peace and good will where myriads now endure an existence scarcely more enviable than
that of beasts of the field. Who, then, can doubt that our country is destined to be ​the great nation ​of futurity?

1) What, in O’Sullivan’s view, is America’s relationship with history, or the past?

2) What, in his view, are American values? What does America represent?
2. What, in his view, is America’s mission?

John O’Sullivan, “Annexation,” 1845.

Why, were other reasoning wanting, in favor of now elevating this question of the reception of Texas into the
Union, out of the lower region of our past party dissensions, up to its proper level of a high and broad
nationality, it surely is to be found, found abundantly, in the manner in which other nations have undertaken to
intrude themselves into it, between us and the proper parties to the case, in a spirit of hostile interference
against us, for the avowed object of thwarting our policy and hampering our power, limiting our greatness and
checking the fulfillment of our manifest destiny to overspread the continent allotted by Providence for the free
development of our yearly multiplying millions….

1. What do you think John O’Sullivan means by “our manifest destiny to overspread the continent
allotted by Providence for the free development of our yearly multiplying millions”?
2. Based on these two do documents, how do you think Americans felt about expanding westward?

Source: John O’Sullivan was a writer and editor of a well-known newspaper around the time of the
Mexican-American war. Most people give him the credit for coining the term “Manifest Destiny.”